Leaflet marketing and the beauty industry: how to promote your company

A lot of people pay a lot of money to look good — whether they want to improve their confidence at work, spruce up for a special event or just pamper themselves now and then. In the UK, women spend up to £40,000 on hair and £100,000 on make-up in their lifetime, according to hairtrade.com — clearly, there’s a lot of money to be made. But, as an owner of a beauty company, how do you convey an impression of professionalism and portray your services attractively?

A solution is via print marketing, and there are plenty of options available. However, if you want to keep costs low without scrimping on quality: have you considered a professional, cost-effective leaflet? Check out why this might be the perfect answer to boost brand awareness and profits for your beauty business…

Leaflets and a direct mail campaigns

Who is your target audience? If you don’t know, your leaflet marketing campaign won’t get off the ground, as you may write for and reach the wrong person when designing and circulating your leaflet. According to market research, women between the ages of 18 and 34 are your largest audience, as they make up the greatest part of the cosmetics market. Now that you know, you need to contact these women specifically. So why not make your leaflet marketing strategy a direct mail campaign? That way, you can send your leaflets directly to potential customers within a particular age bracket in key locations around your business.

But what even is direct mail? Direct mail is a type of advertising that involves companies sending promotional material to a specific group of current or potential customers. Therefore, you can reduce waste, save on over-ordering at the printer, and increase the chance that your leaflet will reach the right person. To do this, either conduct your own target audience research — for example, by using social media or surveys — or purchase key data, like ages and addresses, from third-party sites.

Beating the competition

Every company is in competition with at least one other brand, but the trick to commercial survival is finding a way to stand out. With new products constantly coming onto the market, fresh trends rising and dropping, and the growing influence of online beauty tutorials; you have a lot to contend with in the sector.

If you don’t already know, there is lots of cash in the beauty sector — no the wonder competition is tough! According to recent data, the global skincare, beauty and cosmetics industry is anticipated to reach a worth of $675 million by 2020. With a value of around £17 billion in the UK and employing more than one million people, these figures show that beauty is a lucrative and attractive line of business. So, how do you get noticed?

If it seems to you like digital is taking over, why not go against the grain and invest in print? You probably already have a Facebook page and Instagram account to keep in touch with your clients, as well as an email database to send out deals as you wish. Therefore, opting for print marketing campaign will allow you to widen your net and reach an offline audience.

Many statistics also support the notion that print is a superior form of marketing. Reportedly, direct mail requires approximately 20% less brain effort to process than digital media, according to research by a neuromarketing firm, which suggests that it is simpler to understand and store in our memories. In a recall test, three quarters of those taking part were able to recall the business name after viewing it on a direct mail ad, compared to only 44% who were able to after seeing it on a digital ad. Could it be that beauty brands that put all their ads and offers online are missing a trick?

How crucial is an attractive leaflet?

Your customers are coming to you to look and feel better about their appearances, so it’s not a surprising fact that your typical consumer cares about how they look. A Consumer Insights 2017 report by Cosmetics Europe found that 71% of consumers believe that cosmetic and personal care are ‘important or very important in their daily lives’, which makes offering your customers a beautifully designed leaflet all the more necessary and effective.

According to studies, you have just 50 microseconds to make a good first impression, so surely you need promotional material that creates an instant impact, immediately signals your USPs, and is positively and attractively presented? A leaflet, unlike a brochure or pamphlet that can feature several pages, allows you to condense the very best of your services and products into one, easy-to-read page for maximum effect.

Imagery, colour and layout play a part in how attractive a leaflet is. For example, you should use colours that work well together, and as for images, make these high in quality — pixelated pics won’t cut it — and ensure you use real people enjoying a treatment. According to 3M, a science-based tech company, humans process images 60,000 times faster than text. Therefore, incorporating two descriptive photos in your leaflet is likely to improve how much about your beauty business the reader takes in — which should mean they’re more likely to consider you.

ROI and promotional leaflets

Nobody said it was cheap to start and run a beauty business. Are you looking for ways to cut your outgoings? Unlike lookbooks and saddle-stitch brochures, a single-sheet leaflet is one of the more cost-effective print options. Similarly, a one-off bulk purchase of leaflets may work out less in the long run than the cost it takes to maintain and run a digital marketing campaign. Despite common misconceptions that claim digital to be a free-of-charge platform for effective marketing techniques, your print material may actually be more effective than anything you could create digitally. A study that looked at the efficiency of print media compared to digital platforms including online banners conducted by research firm, GfK, showed that print ads provided the highest ROI: 120%. Perhaps digital is not as useful as anticipated.

Promo offers: how a leaflet can help

Offering discounts on print products is a top way to entice customers — and research supports this idea. More than half of all shoppers asked were encouraged to buy for the first time when they are given the chance to redeem a coupon, according to VoucherCloud, and 80% of consumers also claimed to use coupons regularly. If you’re looking to advertise new cosmetics or attract new customers for a flagging treatment, a leaflet that acts as a voucher can clearly help.

Also, giving a time limit on your offer and highlighting this with a bold, coloured font on your leaflet will give your audience an effective reminder to act fast, too!

Increasing your marketing longevity

In beauty, you’ll have regular customers and one-off customers — so how do you create effective marketing material that sticks in people’s minds and puts you in the top spot when they decide to book an appointment?

Nearly half of those asked kept leaflets after receiving them, according to the Direct Marketing Association. So, while digital ads disappear, you can create an attractive, lightweight leaflet that your potential customer will be inclined to pin on a wall or on their fridge where they’ll have a persistent reminder of your services and products.

Clearly, there are several benefits when it comes to leaflet marketing. Improve your beauty brand’s performance by investing in print today!